The problem of woodwork waste.

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Hi yes the regulations apply to the UK. Skip sites do tend to be wary of commercial vans as lots of traders try to pass off commercial waste as domestic. They also have a separte set of regulations governing them cant remember the regulation off hand but they are also part of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The principle is if a charge is made for bulky items or garden waste then a facility has to be offered where that type of waste can be dumped free of charge. carrying other peoples waste can complicate the issue as you can get caught by needing transfer notes and being a registered waste carrier.
 
Thanks for that Jack, Very informative and helpful.

I had a run in with the environmental agency a few years ago when I received a speculative letter demanding that I was obliged to register as a waste carrier or handler. I ignored the first and received an even more forceful reminder and was annoyed at the aggressive and threatening wording. I responded insisting they quote the legislation reference that decrees I MUST register when in fact all of my waste is disposed of correctly via skip hire and that I would take up the matter with my MP. They backed down very quickly.

What really stood out was that the letters were instigated by the "revenues manager" :roll:

Bob
 
My waste.....
The odd bit of dust goes in the wheelie bin bagged up if there is room. Same as the odd bag of weeds.
Offcuts, go to friends with log burners.
Any larger dirty combustible items, go to a big bonfire.
Smaller items can go in the car to the tip.

What really gets me, I have a berlingo van (private use, non business), the wife had a berlingo multispace....
I could load hers right up with just about anything and take it to the tip, no questions asked. Yet I couldn't deposit a carrier bag full of clearly houshold rubbish if it came out of my van.

I know the bonfire isn't environmentally friendly, but nor is a 20+ mile round trip just to get rid of an extra bag of rubbish.

Our local council has upped its game with regard to recycling now. A couple of years ago, they would refuse to take cardboard, but would happily take car batteries.
 
If you cant compost it or burn it yourself you could try giving it away on freecycle. look it up on the web.

Am i allowed to mention the 'landfill myth' or the 'finite natural reasource myth'z
?
 
mind_the_goat":35afvb3a said:
Am i allowed to mention the 'landfill myth' or the 'finite natural reasource myth'z ?

#-o #-o You just did (hammer) - can of worms comes to mind :lol: :lol:
 
mind_the_goat":22c46d5j said:
If you cant compost it or burn it yourself you could try giving it away on freecycle. look it up on the web.

Am i allowed to mention the 'landfill myth' or the 'finite natural reasource myth'z
?
You can say what you like as far as I am concerned, just don't expect to be agreed with.
What are these myths?
 
I should have kept my earlier reply to just one of the topics in this thread, the one I really wanted to raise:
Freecycle is an on-line community that makes a allows people to give away stuff that would often end up in the bin. It is set up on a very local basis to make it easy for people to collect 'stuff'. I often see offers of firewood on our local group and it seems these are usually snapped up. Sawdust or shavings for compost could also go down well I'd have thought. The only effort involved is posting an 'offer' note and then possibly having to choose from a number of interested parties, who should get the item.
It can also be a good source of reclaimed timber for projects.
I recommend anyone who is collecting stuff for a trip to the local 'tip' offer some of the items on Freecycle, it may make the trip unnecessary.
The National page can be found here uk.freecycle.org and it contains information and links to local groups.


Now, I feel I should apologise for my attempted sarcastic comment on, well, 'the issue that cannot be named'. I was reading on my phone and failed to spot the additional 5 pages of slightly heated debate where many points, including mine had been mentioned. My intention was not to raise the heat further.
Would it be out of order to suggest that we start a new thread to discuss the issue of 'Human impact on the biosphere' and keep this one on topic and restrict it to the Waste Wood issue?
 
mind_the_goat":3g9ccivl said:
I...
Freecycle is an on-line community ...
Freecycle is brilliant. It's being gradually replaced by Freegle as there has been some dissatisfaction with the American Freecycle "owners" but they are otherwise identical.
It's for all that stuff you want to dump which is not worth the effort of selling but too good to destroy. The sort of stuff you see at the local dump but which they won't let you take away - which is madness IMHO. This primary level of recycling is the most efficient of all - no sorting or reprocessing of any sort required you just pick the thing up and take it home!
.... My intention was not to raise the heat further....
Why not? :lol:
 
Just a word of caution about freecycle!
It is used sometimes by criminals to case a property. I know of one of my brothers neighbours who offered a TV. A bloke came to view it, said it wasn't quite what he wanted and left without it but did quiz the owner who said he had bought a new flat screen and dvd package and his 40" screen was great for watching footy on sky. He was broken into a few days later and they cleaned him out but luckily the thieves were spotted by someone who rang the police and they were nabbed. Subsequently confessed to a number of similar crimes it seems.

My next door neighbour who's a DI says he would never use the service but advises to always ask for ID, take the vehicle reg, keep your mouth shut and never allow them to see inside your property or outbuildings (workshop).
My feeling is that anyone collecting firewood or dust/shavings will guess there are tools and machinery about.

I won't use them but my brother despite what happened does so regularly without problem. However, his house almost always has someone at home!

Bob
 
as a gardener I compost my shaving sawdust etc, but keep it seperate from the main compost heap due to the length of time it takes. you can just add it to the garden but that will result in a potash shortage in the soil as the wood leaches it out of the soil. I keep the odd bag for oil spilages and a few more for stable bedding to mix with the straw not had any over to really worry about yet and given the fact that I am a hobbyist am unlikely to have a problem in the furture. Hedgerows are an excellent sourse of timber for burning and turning I wouldn't be without mine. I am currently thinking of turning an old oil fired stove into a woodburner to heat the workshop anyone done it before?
 
I've been making briquettes using a press designed for newspaper. Adding a splash of PVA to the mix and leaving each in the press for 24 hours. Obviously a slow process and I've yet to try burning one. It could be that I've put more energy in than I get out :)
 
mind_the_goat":25scpdq3 said:
I've been making briquettes using a press designed for newspaper. Adding a splash of PVA to the mix and leaving each in the press for 24 hours. Obviously a slow process and I've yet to try burning one. It could be that I've put more energy in than I get out :)

Would be interesting to learn how they burn when you get round to it.

jack55":25scpdq3 said:
They cannot make a charge to householders disposing of refuse at local Civic amenity sites (skip sites) Household waste sites, what every they are called.

Even if they are in a van?

mind_the_goat":25scpdq3 said:
Freecycle is an on-line community that makes a allows people to give away stuff that would often end up in the bin.

I won't use it any more after several people have failed to turn up as promised, wasting my time and stopping others from getting whatever it was I was giving away. I have also been concerned about the security aspect and would only agree to meet people in town.

regards

Brian
 
My council are preety good, they don't seem to mind what goes in the green bin....so I am happy. Role on winter lots of wood to burn. And I don't care about global warmining as we are all going to die, either naturally or by the humans devices or doinging...so enjoy life to the full :)

Cheers

Richard
 
@ brianhabby - started to burn a few now, they are not very dense and catch fire very easily, probably better suited to lighting the fire rather than hoping to use them to heat the house all night. They seem to last for 30 minutes or more though.
I tend to mix up a small batch of saw dust and shavings with a cap full of PVA and water, then just make a new brick each time I go out to the garage I leave the press with a weight on it. Unless you have a good spot inside to dry them it seems to be a job for the summer.
 
I have various uses for the woodshavings and sawdust we produce....

1. bags of clean non texic shavings go to the local shepherds who use it on the floors of trailers when they are moving their sheep in them. Once used (and soaked with what comes out of sheep), it goes with the rest of the muck to rot down before being spread back on the pasture.

2. Bags of nice dry sawdust from the bandsaw dust extractor go to a lady who has a compost toilet at her tree nursery.

3. I used to give really clean symamore shavings to a local pet shop for small animal bedding, but they have since closed down.

4. I always have a metal bucket of shavings by our log fires - if the fire burns down too much you can rekindle it easily with a couple of handfuls of dry wood shavings.

5. Some goes in my compost heap.
 
riclepp":3sxdj3eb said:
My council are preety good, they don't seem to mind what goes in the green bin....so I am happy. Role on winter lots of wood to burn. And I don't care about global warmining as we are all going to die, either naturally or by the humans devices or doinging...so enjoy life to the full :)

Cheers

Richard

It grieves me to see all that burnable wood being thrown away in the wood container at out local recycling plant. I can generate only so much in the way of offcuts!
 
Offcuts and larger chips go into the wood fired central heating boiler. Planer shavings and saw dust goes into a dust collector and when I change the bag I store the full bag in a barn. When there are many enough of them I sell the contents to a local horse owner and get my empty bags back.
Woodworking waste...... wat's that? :wink:.......It must mean bark. The bark is dumped in an old gravel pit with the owner's permission.

Before when I did not make that much sawdust and shavings I used them to fill a hole behind the wood stacks.
 

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